Layout board for photographic reproduction



June 17, 1952 M. H. JONES LAYOUT BOARD FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC REPRODUCTION 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1 Filed Aug. 19, 1948 June 17, 1952 M. H. JONES LAYOUT BOARD FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC REPRODUCTION Filed Aug. 19 1948 2 SHEETS-Sl-iEET 2 i'Yl/IZ 2 0): flax ff Jarzes 2 Law 7 Patented June 17, 1952 LAYOUT BOARD FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC REPRODUCTION Max H. Jones, Evanston, Ill., assignor to Tribune Company, Chicago, 111., a corporation of Illinois Application August 19, 1948, Serial No. 45,100

3 Claims. 1

This invention relates to a lay-out board upon which may be quickly and conveniently arranged and composed facsimiles, for example, of material, such as want-ads, to be graphically reproduced and to a method of preparing a lay-out of such material.

Heretofore it has been common practice, particularly in certain of the graphic arts, in preparing a page for reproduction, to lay out or arrange on a make-up sheet of cardboard or the like, in the relative positions desired, the various component parts of the material to appear on said page. When the various parts have been satisfactorily positioned, each of said parts has then been pasted in position on the make-up sheet and the entire sheet has been photographed. From the photograph, a suitable plate has been engraved or otherwise prepared from which the desired page may be printed. v

This method of laying out material in the position in which it is to appear on a finished page or sheet has been used in the production of booklets, catalogues and advertisements, and has been used in the preparation of plates from which the pages of a newspaper may be printed. Once the material has been laid out on the make-up sheet and pasted thereto, however, the arrangement of the material has not been readily variable. The difiiculties encountered in trying to re-arrange the pasted material, and thus change the facsimile of the page laid out on the sheet, will be particularly apparent from a description of the problems met in using lay-out sheets in the preparation of pages of classified advertisements, for example.

Heretofore in the preparation of a facsimile of a page of classified advertisements, each advertisement which is to appear on the page has first been typed by an electric typewriter or the like on a slip of paper of proper size. Each of the various slips of paper have then been individually pasted upon the make-up sheet in page form and the facsimile of the desired page thus prepared for photographing. To change the content of the page reproduced from the facsimile, the original facsimile must be revised by removing from the make-up sheet those advertisements which are no longer desired and pasting in their place new advertisements. When the facsimile has been comprised of a great many small classified advertisements pasted upon the sheet, it will readily be understood that any substantial change made in the facsimile has required the expenditure of considerable time, and that a general rearrangement of the advertisements within the:

facsimile, after such facsimile has once been prepared, has been difiicult and impractical. For this reason printers of newspapers employing the use of make-up or lay-out sheets in the preparation of plates for the printing of their publications have found it necessary to severely limit the number of change in the pages of their newspapers from one edition to another. Some of such printers of newspapers, for example, have found it necessary, for economic reasons, to require that pages of classified advertisements be printed in several editions without any change in order to avoid the expense of changing the pasted facsimiles of said pages.

An object of the present invention is to provide a lay-out board upon which the component parts of a facsimile of material to be graphically reproduced may be quickly and conveniently arranged on said board in any desired relative position and retained by said board in said position.

Another object of the invention is to provide a lay-out board of the above character upon which the various component parts of said facsimile may be quickly interchanged or re-arranged, and may be quickly withdrawn from said facsimile and other parts substituted therefor.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a lay-out board of the aforesaid character comprising a board having magnets in association therewith, and magnetic strips upon each of which may be prepared a component part of a facsimile of material to be graphically reproduced, said magnetic strips being readily arrangeable on said board to provide said facsimile.

A further object of the invention is to provide a novel and highly useful method of preparing a lay-out of a multiplicity of items of want-ad copy or the like for photographic reproduction preparatory to printing the same in a publication such as a newspaper.

Further objects and advantages of my invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which is illustrated, by way of example, a form of my invention particularly adapted for use in laying out newspaper columns of classifled advertisements. It will be understood, however, that the shape and size of the board may be varied as desired, depending upon the nature} of the material to be laid out thereon.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a top plan view of a composing board embodying my invention, showing a portion of a facsimile of a column of a desired publication 3 arranged thereon, said board being fabricated in two abutting sections and portions of each being shown cut away for convenience in illustration;

Fig. 2 is an elevational cross-sectional view taken on the line 2-2 in Fig. 1 to bring out certain details of construction and to show the po= sition of a piurality of magnets arranged in said board;

Fig. 3 is asimilar view taken on the line in Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is an elevational view taken on the line 4-4 in Fig. 1 to illustrate a means by which the two sections of the board may be secured one to the other;

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of an end portion of one of the sections of the board showing in detail the means by which individual component parts of the facsimile prepared on a -nagnctic medium may be applied thereto;

Fig. 6 is a detailed perspective view of a strip of paper or the like upon which a component part of the facsimile may be prepared for arrangement on the composing board, one corner of said strip being turned upwardly to illustrate a coating of magnetic material on the back side thereof; and

Fig. 7 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken on the line 1-! in Fig. 6 to show in further detail the coated strip.

In the drawings, the numeral l3 indicates a rectangular board of a non-magnetic material, such as wood or the like, which serves as a base for one-half of the illustrated embodiment of my invention. Secured along opposite side the, board lil, as by screws H, are strips l2 ad d l3, of metal or the like, each of which has formed along its upper edge a flange M which extends inwardly over the board. It will be seen that a space is thus provided between the lower surfaces of the flanges and the upper surface of said board along opposite sides of the latter (Fig. 2).

Another board It, of similar shape and size and of the same material as that of the board it, is shown in Fig. 1 with one of its ends abutting an, end of the board 10. Like said board If the board I6 has secured along its opposite sides (as by screws not shown) strips l1 and I 8 which cor respond to the strips 12 and i3, respectively, and have formed along their upper edges flanges l9 identical to the flanges l4 on the strips 12 and I3.

A plurality of lines of permanent bar magnets 20, having U-shaped cross-sections, are pressfitted or otherwise secured in end-to-end position in slots provided therefor in, and longitudinally of, the boards I!) and IS. The uppermost edges of said magnets are, or may be, flush with the upper surfaces of said boards in the manner illustrated, or, if desired, may be disposed below the level of said surfaces. Said magnets are so magnetized that the opposite legs thereof, as seen in cross-section, comprise opposite magnetic poles. The arrangement of the poles of each magnet with respect to the poles of the other magnets may be as is shown in the Figs. 2 and 5 wherein the reference letter N represent north magnetic poles and the reference letter S represent south magnetic poles of said magnets.

It will be understood from the drawings, and particularly from Fig. i, that the lines of magnets may extend from one end to the other of the boards [0 and IE. Five parallel lines of said magnets are shown in the drawings by way of illustration, but it will be apparent that the number of the magnets and the number of lines thereof. as well as the shape of said magnets, may be 4 varied without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

A sheet M of non-magnetic material, such as paper, may be spread over the upper or working surface of each of the boards to keep the same clean and may be secured thereto, as by an adhesive 22, applied to the back side of said sheet 2 I. Said boards may be secured each to the other at their abutting ends as, for example, by dowels (not shown) or by means of hooks 23 which may be pivotally mounted upon screws 24 which may be threaded through the strips [2 and l 3 adjacent the abutting end of the board It. When said hooks are used, they may be arranged to receive protruding screws 25 suitably threaded into the side of the board H3 or threaded into the strips H and i8 thereon, thus retaining said boards in the abutting position shown in 1. To disengage the two boards, the hooks 23 may be raised to the position illustrated by the broken lines in Fig. 4. The other end of the board l0 may also be provided with protruding screws 25 corresponding to those previously described and shown on the board It. It will thus be understood that the boards l0 and 16 may be identical and that any number of said boards may be joined end-to-end if desired.

The upper flat surface of the aforesaid boards. or the surface of the non-magnetic material 21, if the latter has been applied to said boards, serves as a working surface for receiving a plurality of replaceable strips 26 of magnetic material upon each of which has been typed, or printed, or otherwise prepared, a component part (such as a classified advertisement) of material which to appear in publication. In the embodiment shown, each of said strips 28 comprises a strip of paper or the like having secured upon the back surface thereof a coating of magnetic material 21.

.- such as iron dust. Adjacent the right-hand edge of each of the. strips, as viewed in Fig. 6, may be a guide line 23 parallel to said edge. A similar line 29 may be provided on said strip inwardly from and parallel to the left-hand edge of the strip. Approximately midway between the line 29 and the left-hand edge of the strip may be another line 30. If the component parts of the material to appear in the publication are prepared on the strips by typewriter, the lines 28 and 29 may serve as guide lines for the typist and the body of the advertisement may be entered on each strip between said lines. In the space between the line and the left edge of each strip may be entered a code number for the item prepared thereon, and a date or other information pertaining to the item may be entered in the space between the lines 25 and 36, as shown by the numerals in Fig. 6.

The particular embodiment of the apparatus of my invention shown in the drawings is especially adaptable for use in the composing of facsimile: of columns or portions of the columns of a desired publication. It will readily be understood, hcwever, that by varying the shape of the boards l and It, or by varying the shape of a single one of said boards and using the latter board alone. a facsimile of any portion of a desired public.- tion, such as an entire. page thereof, may be prepared on said board or boards by employing the method of my invention about to be described.

The advertisements or items to be arranged on the composing board shown in the drawings may be prepared by an electric typewriter, for example, on a continuous roll of paper or the like, to the back surface of which has been previously applied a coating of the magnetic material 21 and upon the other surface of which has been prepared the lines 28, 29 and 30. To provide maximum efficiency and to avoid all but a minimum of subsequent cutting and trimming, the paper may be of a width equal to or slightly less than the width of the boards Ill and Hi. After a number of the items have been prepared on a continuous strip of paper from said roll, said strip may be cut or otherwise severed on lines at right angles to the edges thereof between each of the adver= tisements thereon, thus providing a plurality of.

separate strips 26 of said paper, each with a single item thereon. Each of said separate strips 25, it will be observed, will be of anzequal width, but will vary in length depending upon the number of lines of printed matter thereon. Said prepared strips 26 may then be quickly arranged in any order desired in column position on the boards I!) and/or 16, as best illustrated by Fig. 5, to provide a facsimile of a column or a portion thereof. In sliding the ends of the strips into the spaces l5 under the flanges l5 and 19, said strips may be bent slightly by the fingers to the contour shown at 3| in Fig. 5. Having been applied to the board, said strips 26 will be retained thereon by the magnetic attraction of the magnets 20 to the coated surface 2'! of the strips. The strips may be easily slid toward the top or bottom ends of the boards, as desired, without requiring their removal therefrom. In this manner it will be understood that a facsimile of a column of a desired publication may be made up or laid out upon the illustrated board in a minimum of time and with a minimum of effort.

After a facsimile of material to be graphically reproduced has been laid out in the position desired on a board of my invention. the board may be placed in an upright position, if desired, and the facsimile thereon, comprising the various items on the strips 26 magnetically retained on the board, may be photographed. In case the facsimile has been prepared on a board of the shape illustrated in the drawings, said photograph, if necessary, may be reduced in size so that the width of the individual notices, advertisements or items of the facsimile, as reproduced in the photograph, are of the width desired in the finished publication. The edge of the photograph may be trimmed to remove the date concerning the items which appear on the left side of each of the strips 26, and an engraved plate, of zinc or the like, may then be prepared from the photograph by any of the well-known engraving processes. The various plates, which have been prepared in the above manner, each having an impression thereon of a facsimile of a column or a portion of a column, as the case may be, may then be arranged in page form and a mat pressed thereon to receive the impressions carried by said plates, and thus to receive the impression of an entire page of the desired publication. A stereotype or cylindrical casting may then he prepared from the mat in any well-known manner, and the finished page may be printed in the usual way. Plates for use in other kinds of printing, such as lithography, may, of course, also be prepared from the photograph if desired.

Any of the facsimiles prepared in the above manner on the board or boards of my invention may be quickly and easily varied, changed, or re-arranged as desired. For example, when the board illustrated is used for laying out newspaper columns, immediately after a facsimile has been photographed as aforesaid, those strips 26 which may bear notices, items or advertisements which are not to appear in subsequent editions or issues of the publication, may be removed from the board and other strips 25 hearing new or different items or advertisements may be quickly applied to the board in place of those removed to provide a revised facsimile. It will be understood that, because the strips, after being applied to the board, may be easily slid thereon toward either end of said board, the original facsimile may be quickly opened up on the board to make the removal and replacement of the strips 26 easier in the composing of the revised facsimile. Upon completion the revised facsimile may be photographed, another plate prepared in the aforesaid manner, and another mat prepared, said mat having thereon the impression of a revised page to appear in a later edition or issue of the publication.

The two boards If] and [5, when attached to each other, as in Fig. 1, may be used as a single board upon which may be prepared a facsimile of full length column of a newspaper, for example. The individual strips 26 may he slid from one of the boards to the other, as desired or required, in the composing of the facsimile. When the facsimile has been prepared, the upper half thereof on the board l6 and the lower half thereof on the board In may each he slid on the respective boards away from the line at which the ends of said boards abut, thus dividing the facsimile into two parts. The two boards may then be unfastened by raising the hooks 23, and each half of the facsimile photographed in the manner previously described. An engraved plate may be then prepared from each of the resulting photographs and said plates may thereafter be placed in end-to-end position in page form alongside the plates prepared for other columns of a particular page of a newspaper, for example. A mat may then be prepared upon said plates in the aforesaid manner to be used in the preparation of a stereotype of the page.

The foregoing detailed description has been given for clearness of understanding only, and no unnecessary limitations should be understood therefrom, but the appending claims should be construed as broadly as permissible in view of the prior art.

I claim:

1. A lay-out board for advertising matter to be photographically reproduced for printing, comprising a base of non-magnetic material, marginal flange members on said base having fixed retaining portions overlying and slightly spaced from the top surface of said base at the side edges thereof, a plurality of U-shaped magnetic bars embedded in and extending lengthwise of said base, the same being spaced at intervals transversely of the base, with the pole pieces of the magnets substantially flush with the top surface of the base, a surface sheet overlying said base and embedded magnets, and flexible strips of paper having the advertising matter to be reproduced typed thereon and having a backing of magnetic material thereon placed on said surface sheet with the edges received and retained by said flanges and held on said board by said magnets.

2. A lay-out board for advertising matter to be photographically reproduced for printing,

aeoasos comprising a base oi non-magnetic material, marginal flange members on said base having fixed retaining portions over1ying and slightly spaced from the top surface of said base at the side edges thereof, a plurality of magnets embedded in said base and so disposed as to afford magnetic attraction substantially throughout the length and breadth of said board, with the pole pieces of the magnets substantially flush with the top surface of the base, a surface sheet overlying said base and embedded magnets, and flexible strips of paper having the advertising matter to be reproduced typed thereon and having a backing of magnetic material thereon placed on said surface sheet with the edges received and retained by said flanges and held. on said board by said magnets.

3. A lay-out board for advertising matter to be photographic-ally reproduced for printing, comprising a base of non-magnetic material, marginal flange members on said base having fixed retaining portions overlying and slightly spaced from the top surface of said base at the side edges thereof, a plurality of magnets embedded in said base and so disposed as to afford magnetic attraction substantially throughout the length and breadth of said board, with the pole pieces of the magnets sub- REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 982,940 De Silva Jan. 31, 1911 1,168,949 McKittrick et al. Jan. 18, 1916 1,395,982 Gee Nov. 1, 1921 1,677,919 Hansen July 24, 1928 11394539 Brown Dec. 11, 1928 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 2,957 Great Britain Dec. 14, 1895 of 1895 497,373 Germany May 8, 1930 622,991 France Mar. 8, 1927. 

